Date: Mon 4/15/2002 1:37 PM
From: Michael Sprong ([email protected])
Subject: A Top-Secret, One-of-a-Kind Mac
No, that isn't a black-ops Mac at all. It is a Mac made tempest resistant for FCC testing of other apple hardware (A Top-Secret, One-of-a-Kind Mac, Apr 15, 2002). This Mac was in the networking lab and turned up missing when the printer group wasdisbanded. I wondered what happened to it, though it is actually pretty much worthless, and bug-ugly to boot.
During the mid to late '80s, prior to increased security measures, all sorts of things turned up missing, and this was one of them. The guys in the Faraday Cage needed a machine at hand during testing that wouldn't interfere with the signalsradiating from the device being tested. Apple actually had three cases made, two for the SE and one for the Mac II. I know these things because I was working at Apple when this thing was used, and a peer of my boss was made to pay for it when it came up missing. Some dirtbag walked off with it, that's all!
That nonsense about the CIA is just plain BS. If anybody knows what sort of left-leaning atmosphere was present in Apple during its history, they would never assume it did anything covert for the government.
By the way, the tempest shielding used in that box was a precursor to the punched aluminum shielding in Macs that came afterward.
